Alexander James "Jim" NaughtieFRSE (surname pronounced /ˈnɔːxti/; born 9 August 1951) is a British radio and news presenter for the BBC. From 1994 until 2015 he was one of the main presenters of Radio 4's Today programme.

In July 2015 he announced, via the BBC, that in early 2016 he would retire from regular presenting duties on the programme and would, instead, be its 'Special Correspondent' with 'responsibility for charting the course of the constitutional changes at the heart of the UK political debate', as well as the BBC News's Books Editor, contributing a book review to the Saturday morning editions of Today.[2] In his 21-plus years on Today, Naughtie had anchored every BBC Radio UK election results programme since 1997 and had worked on every US presidential election since 1988, the BBC added.

"After 21 years, I can turn off that 3am alarm at last," the Daily Telegraph quoted Naughtie as saying.[3] He presented his last edition of Today on 16 December 2015.[4] He earns £150,000 - £199,999 as a BBC contributor.[5]

Radio presenter

In 1986, Naughtie moved into radio presenting, hosting The Week In Westminster before moving to The World At One in 1988. He has also made several radio documentaries and series and has written three books, Playing the Palace: A Westminster Collection, The Rivals: The Intimate Story of a Political Marriage, and The Accidental American: Tony Blair and the Presidency.

Naughtie has been a presenter of the televised Proms since 1992, and has also presented opera programmes such as Radio 3's Opera News. He is also the host of Radio 4's Bookclub.[8]

In 1994 he became one of the main presenters of Radio 4's Today programme. Shortly before the 2005 General Election he opened a question to Labour politician Ed Balls "If we win the election...", quickly correcting himself to say "if you win the election". The incident led to accusations of bias towards the Labour Party and a failure to be neutral. Lord Tebbit said of the incident: "How often a slip of the tongue betrays the true thoughts in the mind of the speaker. We could all see the shape of the cat in the bag, but Mr Naughtie has now let it out for all to see."[7] He has a distinctive Scottish accent which has been named as the "best voice to wake up to" in a comparative survey.[9] His practice of asking particularly long questions is sometimes noted by commentators.[10]

Jeremy Hunt gaffe

On 6 December 2010, Naughtie was co-presenting the Today programme, and trailing the guests who would be interviewed after the 8am news bulletin. Introducing Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, he inadvertently replaced the "H" at the beginning of "Hunt" with a "C". Choking on his words, he was clearly embarrassed by the mistake, and gave a full apology once he had recovered. However, only an hour later, another BBC presenter, Andrew Marr made the same mistake when discussing Naughtie's error.[15][16]

In 2017 Naughtie gave the Hugh Cudlipp Lecture.[19] In his speech he referred to the Trump presidency thus: "There hasn’t been in living memory in western democracy a threat to freedom of the press of the kind we see there."